Steve J. Schwab, MD, chancellor for the University of Tennessee Health Science Center (UTHSC), is pleased to announce that David M. Stern, MD, has been named executive dean for the UT College of Medicine (COM) campuses statewide.
Steve J. Schwab, MD, chancellor for the University of Tennessee Health Science Center (UTHSC), is pleased to announce that David M. Stern, MD, has been named executive dean for the UT College of Medicine (COM) campuses statewide. Reporting directly to Chancellor Schwab, Dr. Stern will serve as the chief academic and administrative officer responsible for the leadership and management of the College of Medicine campuses in Memphis, Chattanooga and Knoxville. Additionally, Dr. Stern will serve as Vice Chancellor of Clinical Affairs at UTHSC to oversee the college’s clinical activities and faculty practice plans, which currently include UT Medical Group and UT Le Bonheur Pediatric Specialists.
Dr. Stern will embark on his new position at UTHSC in mid-April and will be located in Memphis, where he will also assume the role of dean for the College of Medicine, Memphis campus. Memphis, the city where UTHSC was founded 100 years ago, remains UT Health Science Center’s main campus and home to the largest COM, where all medical students at UTHSC begin their training. Deans located at each additional COM campus will report to Dr. Stern.
“Dr. Stern’s appointment follows a nationwide search in which the committee identified a group of accomplished, well-qualified candidates,” Chancellor Schwab said. “We feel certain Dr. Stern will bring the right combination of academic rigor, clinical expertise, administrative discipline and visionary leadership to the executive dean’s role,” he added.
Since 2005, Dr. Stern has been a pivotal part of the University of Cincinnati’s academic medicine, research and clinical care community. From 2005-2010, he served as dean of the College of Medicine, vice-president for Health Affairs from 2008-2010, and professor of Internal Medicine and Molecular and Cellular Physiology from 2005 to the present. His achievements included appointing 14 chairs and key leaders, as well as identifying and focusing resources on critical centers of excellence related to cancer, cardiovascular disease, neuroscience and metabolic disorders. Dr. Stern also established a new collaboration with the Cincinnati Children’s Hospital Medical Center by: founding the Cincinnati Cancer Consortium; securing a Clinical Translational Science Award from the National Institutes of Health, and forming the affiliated Metabolic Diseases Institute. To increase profitability, Dr. Stern re-engineered the faculty practice group, University of Cincinnati Physicians, by creating an effective community advisory board and developing a foundation for the university’s health system, UC Health.
Before joining the University of Cincinnati, Dr. Stern served three years as dean and chief clinical officer at the Medical College of Georgia. Prior to this role, Dr. Stern spent many years as a physician scientist at the Columbia University College of Physicians and Surgeons. In this work, he focused on vascular biology and chronic vascular disease, especially related to diabetes, ischemia/reperfusion injury and Alzheimer’s disease. At Columbia, Dr. Stern simultaneously served as: tenured professor, endowed chair of the Carrus Professorship, founding director of the Center for Vascular and Lung Pathobiology, and director of the Division of Surgical Science in the Department of Surgery.
Dr. Stern, a certified diplomat for the American Board of Internal Medicine, has built a career as a grant-supported researcher, inventor and academician who is widely published. He has contributed to more than 230 peer-reviewed articles, has been invited to contribute to more than 110 articles and chapters, and has edited a book on diabetes and cardiovascular disease. He holds 14 patents and maintains memberships and fellowships in a variety of scientific societies, including: the American Society of Clinical Investigation, the Association of American Physicians, the American Society of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology, the American Society of Hematology, the American Society of Cell Biology, the American Association of Pathologists, the Harvey Society, and the International Society on Thrombosis and Hemostasis.
Throughout his career, Dr. Stern has earned numerous awards and honors. He received the Merrick Award from the Oklahoma Medical Research Foundation and was finalist for the Sanofi Thrombosis Research Foundation International Award on Thrombosis. Additionally, he was the special lecturer for the 10th Japanese Society on Thrombosis and Hemostasis; co-chair of the Gordon Conference on Vascular Cell Biology; Borun Visiting Professor of the Cardiology Division, Department of Medicine at the University of California, Los Angeles; special invited lecturer of the Third Symposium on Diabetes in Osaka, Japan; Visiting Professor at the University of Hong Kong; Merit Award winner of the National Institutes of Health National Heart Lung and Blood Institute; Eli Lilly Visiting Professor, Division of Endocrinology, University of Colorado School of Medicine, Denver; member of the Board of Scientific Advisors for Sterling Winthrop, and was a member of the United States Department of Veterans Affairs Blue Ribbon Panel on VA-Medical School Affiliations. Dr. Stern has also been elected to Alpha Omega Alpha, the prestigious medical honor society.
The American Heart Association (AHA) has continuously recognized Dr. Stern during this career with a variety of awards and roles. The AHA honored him with the Clinician Scientist Award, the Young Investigator Award, and the Established Investigator Award. The AHA also selected him as Fellow of the Council on Arteriosclerosis, Fellow of the AHA, and co-chair of the Diabetes Summit at the National AHA meeting in Chicago, Ill.
A graduate of Yale University with a bachelor’s degree in chemistry, Dr. Stern earned his medical degree from Harvard Medical School. He has been an engaged member in the communities for which he has resided as a speaker, member of local boards and musical performer at charitable events — he is an accomplished clarinetist.